Why Do Atheists Know More About Religion? Ctd

Earlier Jamelle Bouie argued that atheists, Mormons, and Jews know more about religion than Christians because as "a matter of simple survival, minorities tend to know more about the dominant group than vice versa." Ilya Somin differs:

In the case of atheists/agnostics and Jews, their main knowledge advantage over Christians comes from their much higher levels of knowledge about non-Christian “world religions” (mainly Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism). Jews got an average of 7.9 questions out of 11 in this category, atheists/agnostics 7.5, and Christians a mere 5.0 (the Mormon average was 5.6). While Jews, atheists and agnostics also outscored Christians on knowledge of Christianity, the margin was much smaller. Thus, the main knowledge advantage of these three religious minorities came on questions that had little if any connection to “survival” as religious minorities in an overwhelmingly Christian society.

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.